Documents / Official release

65 HS1-834228961 62-HQ-83894 Serial 130

Federal Bureau of Investigation · 126 pages · text by OCR

This FBI file serial collects 1947 Army Air Forces reports on flying disc sightings. It includes Air Defense Command interviews from September 1947 with Pan American pilot Alpheus Powell and navigator Walter White about orange objects seen near Boston on 4 August 1947. It also holds a Birmingham, Alabama report with a photograph, newspaper clippings and a sergeant's sworn statement, Newfoundland and Alaska sighting reports, notes on an instrument found in Illinois, and a Weather Bureau memo on a metallic disk.

From the source:Release of 2026-05-08 Incident: N/A, N/A. The FBI's 62-HQ-83894 case file includes investigative records, eyewitness testimonies, and public reports concerning Unidentified Flying Objects and flying discs documented between June 1947 and July 1968. The records include high-profile incident accounts, photographic evidence from sites like Oak Ridge, TN, and technical proposals regarding potential propulsion systems. Additional topics include convention programs, researcher accounts, and extensive media coverage from the period. This file is partially posted on FBI vault with more redactions and some pages missing. Included here is the complete case file with several newly declassified pages and only minor redactions.

  • p. 13 …from their home in Ensley Highlands. "I never shot at anything moving as rapidly as they…
  • p. 19 …sure that the object he had seen was something new which he had never seen before.
  • p. 20 …he was very definite that he had never seen anything like it before. His mother, Mrs…
  • p. 30 …It definately was not a shooting star; I'd seen several stars shoot before, but never…
  • p. 31 …If it was a shooting star, I'd never seen one as large before, and it…
  • p. 41 …such machine was built and that it never left Connecticut. "These planes were flying high, maybe…
  • p. 43 …UNIL and his two boys maintained that they had never seen one of the discs. UNIL…
  • p. 67 …thought came to me that I had never seen such an object before, and that although…
  • p. 79 …Sun reflected from top side, but never from underside, even when turning 11 Unexplained None 12…
  • p. 90 …pressing the search, that I probably would never see the disc-like objects referred to by…
  • p. 93 …Arnold has never consulted astronautical charts of the type the Army uses. Mr. Arnold stated that…
  • p. 94 flying through the air I would never say a word about it, due to the fact…
  • p. 97 …I never asked nor wanted any notoriety for just accidently being in the right spot at…
  • p. 98 …I watched these objects with great interest as I had never before observed
  • p. 102 …John Joe on the street corner or Pete Andrews on the ranch has never heard about…
  • p. 108 …t be coming towards us, because we never approached them. I don't believe they could…
HEADQUARTERS BIRMINGHAM AIR RESERVE TRAINING DETACHMENT BIRMINGHAM ARMY AIR FIELD Birmingham, Alabama

8 July 1947

SUBJECT: Report on Local "Flying Disc"

7795

TO: Commanding General Fourteenth Air Force, ADC Orlando, Florida Attn: A-2

1. Inclosed herewith is a photograph of the "publicized flying disc," which was reportedly witnessed over Birmingham on the night of Sunday, 6 July 1947.

2. Attention is invited to the two light spots on the print and the light trail following the two discs. The arrow at the top of the photograph indicates the direction of flight. This has been examined by professional photographers in Birmingham and their general opinion is that the two spots shown on the light trail are no flaws in the negative, but instead, an actual photograph of the mysterious disc.

3. The undersigned officer did not personally witness the flight of any disc, however, in view of the numerous reports received from the citizens of Birmingham, it is the general opinion in Birmingham that "something was in the air." Attached hereto as inclosure number two is a statement made by the only military personnel of this organization who personally witnessed the flight of the mysterious disc. For additional information attached as inclosure number three are clippings from one of the local newspapers giving an account of the many persons who reported seeing the many mysterious objects.

4. The intelligence officer of the Alabama Military District has forwarded a similar report through ground force channels to the Commanding General, Third Army, Atlanta 3, Georgia.

3 Incls.

ack e White

1. Photograph

2. Statement

3. Clippings

JACK C. WHITC

Major, Air Corps

Commanding

Cases discussed

About this file

Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. The text was read from the page images by an OCR model; expect the odd misread word. 126 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.